Protection and promotion of origin-based food products, often under geographical indication (GI) systems, are widely considered to be one of ways for rural development. While, particularities of such historical and localized food system make the quality coordination between different economic actors more complex than is the case for standard products. This paper analyses how the features of a food system are connected to the difficulty of coordination, examining the case of okabu (local turnip around Kyoto) and senmaizuke (salted and pickled okabu). Senmaizuke is a nationally famous local product of Kyoto, but producers do not have effective collective activities and have quality coordination problems. The result shows that okabu defects that cannot be identified and removed prior to sending is the main cause of the quality coordination problem. A chain structure that lacks traceability and price incentives to good quality, together with differences in triage criteria and return systems among the various processors, also hinders communication for coordination. Secondly, this paper proposes the analytical concept of quality coordination, which identifies a double structure of social/collective coordination and individual coordination as to discuss more clearly effective quality coordination. When the self-resolution of a quality problem reaches the limits, role of social coordination to solve the problem is indispensable to keep activities in the food system. Because the resolution of quality problem may require changing their growing practices, triage standards or to improve plant varieties as shown in supplemental case of Manganji sweet pepper. These resolutions are considered to be associated with long-term collective strategies and interests of whole of food system. However, the lack of platform for vertical coordination and cooperation is considered to be a common disadvantage for considerable number of localised food systems in Japan and also in other countries without interprofessional organization.

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